2024 DIVERSITY DATABASE PREMIUM SPONSOR Paul Hastings LLP

Over the past few decades, Paul Hastings has grown into a global powerhouse with strength in employment, entertainment and media, financial restructuring, fintech, global finance, intellectual property, investigations and white collar defense, real estate, securities and capital markets, and structured credit. With offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo, the firm has grown especially strong in Asian market dealings.

It Started With Three

In 1951, Harvard law grads Bob Hastings, Lee Paul, and Leonard Janofsky pooled their ambitious efforts to form a new firm in Los Angeles. They divided the workload three ways: Janofsky handled employment law matters, Paul dealt with litigation and Hastings managed business law. In 1962, Charles Walker joined the trio as a partner, adding his name to the masthead and establishing a tax practice. Walker took a brief sojourn from the firm in the 1970s to accept a position in the Ford administration as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy but soon returned to his tax work at the firm. The firm grew organically over the following few decades—rather than merging or acquiring other firms—and now operates in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Doing It All

Paul Hastings is a premier global law firm with elite teams in finance, M&A, private equity, and litigation dedicated to serving the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers and corporations. It is one of a handful of law firms ranked across multiple core finance areas, including structured credit, leveraged finance, private credit, capital markets, and real estate finance. As evidenced by the Am Law Power Rankings in April 2026, the firm has continued its trajectory to the top of the industry, with the publication noting that “no other firm has achieved comparable lift in breadth and quality ranking across Chambers, Bloomberg/LSEG, and Octus league tables.”

The firm has a bustling transactional practice with hundreds of lawyers across the globe counseling on M&A, private equity, venture capital, and much more. The firm’s client list spans more than a dozen industries, including business and human rights, data centers, ESG and impact, emerging growth companies, energy, financial services, hospitality and leisure, insurance and reinsurance, life sciences and healthcare, mining and metals, private investment funds, real estate, and technology, media and communications.

Another notable practice is employment law. The firm regularly appears among the top 10 firms in Vault’s Labor & Employment rankings, with particular depth in wage and hour, employee benefits and ERISA, employment discrimination, international employment issues, labor management, and restrictive covenants.

Finally, the firm has established a leading real estate practice that is in the top 10 of Vault Law’s Real Estate rankings. The firm takes a cross-disciplinary approach in which lawyers in the real estate practice area collaborate with the firm’s corporate, tax and securitization and structured finance teams to assist with all aspects of real estate transaction.

Strategic Social Impact

Paul Hastings approaches social impact with the same intention and rigor that defines its client work. Beyond a longstanding commitment to pro bono, the firm invests in communities through strategic partnerships and global philanthropic initiatives through grants, in-kind donations and thought leadership exchanges. The firm also offers a range of programs designed to encourage employee engagement in charitable activities, including a volunteer time off program, employee matching gifts program, charity running programs, firm-sponsored charitable initiatives and opportunities for board service.

• Top-ranked in the Summer Associate Survey, 2023-2025—The American Lawyer
• Recognized on Vault Law 100’s list of most prestigious firms to work for, 2026—Vault
• Recognized on the A-list and AmLaw 200, 2025—The American Lawyer
• Recognized in several states, including California, New York and Texas, in Best Law Firms by Region, 2026—Vault
• Recognized in the Global Elite, 2025—The American Lawyer/Law.com